Where are they now?

95% of 2012 Brandeis graduates are employed, attending graduate school, or engaged in other meaningful activities within six months of graduation. To find out more, check out the Hiatt Center Post-Grad Survey!

Undergraduate Alumni News

Khayam Allen '07

Since 2010 Khayam Allen has worked for the Solidarités International fulfilling many different roles, including an Emergency Shelter Program Manager, a Project Cycle Management Officer, an Emergency Coordinator, and most recently a Field Coordinator. Allen graduated from Brandeis in 2007 with triple major in Anthropology, Economics, and International and Global Studies, and a minor in Classical Studies. He received his MSc in 2008 from the London School of Economics.

Jefferson Arak '07

Jeff Arak '07 is currently a freelance filmmaker living in New York City, producing videos that tell stories and increase critical understanding about our world.

In recent years, Jeff has collaborated on promotional videos for the Arts and social sectors, cultural profiles of institutions, events, and individuals, as well as an educational series about blindness and, most recently, music videos. Jeff produces, edits and shoots with a wide range of individuals and organizations while pursuing funding and grant research for ongoing investigations into Sign Language education in Mexico and immigration to the USA from Latin America.

Before relocating to New York, Jeff spent three years in the field of public education, working first as a Latino Achievement Coordinator at a high school, and then at One World Youth Project, a non-profit in Washington DC, where he helped to bring cultural competence and international awareness to students around the world.

In 2008, through a KWD Project for Peace Grant, Jeff received funds to equip a media lab on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Southern Mexico with video and audio equipment and train a small indigenous youth group to make short films. The youth group and their work is featured at the end of his award-winning undergraduate thesis film, Those With Voice (Los Con Voz), which received the Betty and Harry S. Shapiro Endowed Award in Anthropology and Brandeis University and is distributed internationally by DER. Jeff's work continues to be informed by a strong background in community media and non-fiction story-telling.

Jessye Kass '13

Recipient of the 2013 Fulbright Award, Jessye Kass, a veteran traveler dedicated to educating children through the arts, is currently teaching English in Thailand. She was looking for a decidedly different experience, she says.“I wanted to learn a non-English alphabet language and develop a knowledge of a new culture. I am eager for the culture shock and hope to apply my art education knowledge in Thailand as well.” To follow her travels, check out her blog!

Matthew Kupfer '12

Matthew Kupfer is currently a Junior Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. As a Junior fellow, Kupfer archives research on the Armenian-American press for a book project on Armenian-Turkish relations. Additionally, he monitors the Russian press and provides research support for the program. Kupfer also works as a Freelance Writer for Eurasianet, where he has written feature articles focusing on Central Asians in Russia and minority groups, as well as a blogger for Registan, where he writes articles on current events and trends in the post-Soviet region. In 2010, Kupfer was a recipient of the Sorensen Fellowship. In summer 2010 he interned in Osh, Kyrgyzstan with Info-Centre Rainbow, helping to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and find international funding for programs to serve 200 children who contracted HIV in the hospitals of Southern Kyrgyzstan. Matthew is a double major in Anthropology and International & Global Studies.

Jessica Meissner '05

Jessica Meissner is currently on a fellowship at University of Michigan, studying global corporate structure and practice, while working in Washtenaw County, MI to study the needs of non-venture capital funded entrepreneurs. In particular, Jessica is interested in creating meaningful employment for communities through worker-owned and multi-stakeholder cooperatives as a way to finance startups that would employ under/unemployed workers and transform traditionally low-wage work into viable long-term careers.

Josh Rosenthal '07

Josh Rosenthal recently graduated from Yale Law School in 2013, and is currently working as a Law Clerk for the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Prior to graduating from Yale, Rosenthal was also a Summer Associate for the law firm, Altshuler Berzon LLP in San Francisco, and a Research Associate for the Center for American Progress.

Jonathan W. Searles '04

Jonathan W. Searles is a senior director on the central nervous system disorders team at Decision Resources. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Searles received a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Brandeis University. While earning his Bachelor of Arts degree, Mr. Searles conducted research projects at the Harvard University Peabody Museum and at Brandeis.

Noam Sienna '11

Noam Sienna is a PhD student in History at the university of Minnesota-Twin Cities where he studies Moroccan Jewry with Professor Daniel Schroeter. As a senior at Brandeis, Sienna wrote an honors thesis on Israeli henna ceremonies and the politics of heritage.

Andrew Vorsanger '09

Andrew is currently a graduate student in Anthropology at Arizona State University. His research interests include paleoecology, dietary reconstruction, plio-pleistocene east-African hominids, stable isotopes, and human evolution.